Recently, people on TikTok have been claiming that drinking coffee before will sex will make your orgasms way better. And user @cupofalexx_official stated that it intensifies your orgasms by 50%:
At first, I was like, OK...where's the data on this? I NEED ACTUAL RESOURCES TO CONFIRM THIS INFORMATION. But I just kept seeing more and more videos about it, including this one by @jugradoni:
She took three shots of expresso before the deed and reported back, saying: "That was wild. That was wild! I'm gonna do that forever now. Usually, one or two times...whatever. But this — like, 16 times. IT WAS WILD. Seriously, if you're fucking stressed out of your mind, go drink some damn coffee. OK?! Trust me."
Anyway, it was all very convincing, but I still wanted answers from an actual expert. Like, is it safe? And from a scientific standpoint, does it really do what TikTokers are claiming it does in the bedroom?
So, BuzzFeed spoke to Dr. Nicole E. Williams, MD, FACOG, FACS. She has been practicing for 15 years and is the founder of The Gynecology Institute of Chicago.
Coffee contains caffeine and caffeine is a vasodilator. "This means your blood vessels are more open, allowing blood to flow, well, everywhere. Generally, this means your brain — which is why people like caffeine for studying. It also increases your heart rate, which could increase some people's anxiety. There are some studies on men and coffee, which indicate that it may help for erectile dysfunction, but as a gynecologist, that's not my concern. Unfortunately, we do not have enough study to say if downing an espresso will make a woman's orgasm more intense," she concluded.
"Consuming any substance in order to improve something that is already naturally great is problematic at best. One cup may be fine, but how about two or three? Consuming too much coffee may increase your resting heart rate and result in an increase in anxiety, which of course is no good for creating blissful orgasms," Dr. Williams stated.
BuzzFeed also spoke to Dr. Staci Tanouye, MD, FACOG, who agreed that coffee will not intensify your orgasms. "In terms of women, there is no evidence that caffeine can enhance sex or orgasm in any way. However, there is some evidence that excess caffeine can be associated with more painful menstrual cramps. The theory being, caffeine can constrict blood vessels and blood flow to the uterus. Extrapolating that theory to sexual function, one would think decreased blood flow could be detrimental to sexual function and orgasm in addition to not being able to fully relax," she said.
In response to this, Dr. Williams added that the effects of caffeine are very complex. "Caffeine has mild (and temporary) vasoconstrictor effects with initial exposure, but is mainly a vasodilator as concentrations increase. Caffeine also appears to act as a sort of a booster to analgesics (drugs). A study on cramps shows that adding caffeine to paracetamol (acetaminophen) improved menstrual cramps. My best, educated guess is that caffeine has a multimodal effect which cannot be attributed to any one of its myriad properties. It also depends on your level of exposure to caffeine and how your body will react. New users to caffeine have a different experience than those who have adapted, so it's difficult for us to study it given its ubiquitous use in society."
TL;DR: There is no credible evidence that caffeine before sex will give you a better orgasm. The information you can take away from this is that caffeine affects everyone differently, and there's no straightforward answer to how a person's body may react to it.
